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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. We're going to begin our service this evening. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. You can take your hymnals and open up to number 310. And that's hymn number 310. And number 310, Footprints of Jesus. We believe, Lord, every heart will be calling. Come, follow me. And we see that our good things coming lead us to Thee. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway close. In the footsteps of Jesus, there they go. Holding the earth on our mountain, seeking His shield. O'er our one blessed island's mountain, there be no need. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway close. We have followed the steps of Jesus, where they go. It may be the next employee reaching the world. But in hopes of the forehand, the leap's turning the road. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway close. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where they go. Then at last, whereby He sees us, our journey done. We will rest where the steps of Jesus end at this time. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway close. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where they go. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Number 281, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, in my humble pride, while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble pride, while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at a wall of mercy find a sweet relief, kneeling there in the truth itself, have my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble pride, while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Trust me, Lord, hear my hearing, would I seek my faith, hear my holy rolling spirit, save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble pride, while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort, more than life to me. Whom have I left beside Thee, who defendeth me? Savior, Savior, hear my humble pride, while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Amen. All right, great singing this evening. This time we'll go through our announcements. If you do not have a bulletin, just slip up your hand real high and Brother Lindsay will get one to you. And if you open up to the first page, we've got our service times listed there. It's always Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. And then Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're returning back to our normal Bible study schedule. So I apologize for not updating this. I saw Pastor Mejia on here. He was here this last Wednesday. It was awesome having him out here. Hopefully you all got a chance to speak with him a little bit and encourage him and get to hear what he had for us. If you missed it, then you can tune into our backup channel on YouTube. That's where that video is hosted right now. And just in general, if you miss church, if you don't catch a live stream and you're looking for the sermon that was preached, the service, go to SHBC Atlanta, Strong Old Baptist Church Atlanta. That's where everything is being posted right now. And some things are going to the main channel, but not everything. We have a couple strikes on our account, so we're trying to get out of the danger zone so we don't have to lose the entire account. But that's what's going on. So if you're missing something, you can just check out the backup channel. For right now, that one's clear. And we're going to continue to operate this way of having backup channels where they're relatively unknown. So I'm going to try to keep you up to date with what the channels are if you want to follow along online and catch the sermons that way because we're going to keep on pushing stuff out until we literally can't anymore. So we'll deal with all the censorship and taking down and the chastising of you can't say those things, that's mean, that's hateful, okay, whatever. We'll deal with that until they just permanently have enough technology to just not allow it at all, which that day is coming, but it's not here yet. So we're going to keep on using it while we can as a tool to reach people. We've got so many opportunities listed there, and baptisms. Let's count up any salvations from the week prior to today. Anything to report for salvation? Yes, sir. Three for yesterday. Very good. Anyone else prior to today? Any soul winning? Okay, how about now today? One, one, two, we had one. Anybody? Yes, sir. One at the nursing home. Oh, at the nursing home. All right. Awesome. Awesome. Good. Good deal. Were you there today? Yeah. How did that go? Okay, good. I mean, obviously it was good. Someone got saved, right? So that's always good news. Good. Great. Yeah, I guess I'll make just a quick reference. Are you or Brother Peter kind of dealing with the scheduling on that? Because you were before. Are you still doing that? Yeah, we still, yeah, pretty much, yeah. Are you still doing that? Running the schedule for the preaching? Okay. So is that rotation lead Brother Devin and Brother Peter? Brother Peter. Okay. So for those of you that might not know, because this hasn't been, you know, we've had this for a while, but because of COVID and everything at lockdown, there is an assisted living home that we work with where we go in and we offer church services for the residents there. And we were doing this before the pandemic hit. And then during the whole COVID thing, like no one was allowed in there, right? So we weren't able to just go in. And we had a good routine going where people could go in and help. Some people were preaching, some people just go and help, whatever. But now it's opening back up again. And if you're a man and you're interested in preaching, you can speak with Brother Carter. We're going to pick up some more. I just need to schedule the next men's preaching class. We do preaching classes roughly once a month. I need to start scheduling those again. And we'll get those on the calendar. And then also if you don't want to preach at this living home, you can also, I think, I have to verify this, that like I don't know how many people they're allowing. And we've got to be careful. We've got to be careful about that because they don't want to just have like huge groups coming in. But if there's a couple people that want to help, I'm sure that would be okay. You brought your family. But I mean we can't, like we've had kind of a lot of people at some weeks where we've had a lot of people come and help. So I guess the bottom line is if you're interested in maybe assisting in that at all, and you'd like to go and be a blessing to the people at the assisted living home, because that is a good thing to do. It's nice to be able to go over there and minister to the people there, talk to them, you know, ask them about salvation, you know, whatever. Like there's ways that you can help. Helping some of the people, the residents find the songs. We sing some songs and there's preaching and stuff. Help them find a place in their Bible. You know, those are all good things that you can do if you want to go and help the people out there. But speak with brother Carter if you're interested in that at all. If that's something you think you might want to do. We do that on Sundays between services. So it would be right in the middle of like the soul winning time. But if you're interested in doing that one week, talk to them and see where the status is. Because we don't, we definitely don't want to jeopardize the opportunity we have if they're having restrictions on how many people are showing up. We don't want it to just be, you know, we don't want them thinking, oh man, we can't have this happen. Right? So we're going to be prudent with that. But I also want to, as long as we can, offer the opportunity for you to get a chance to minister to some of the people there because it's a good ministry that we have going on at that assisted living home. So I just wanted to mention that because I know people have joined now since before we were doing this and might not even be aware that we're doing this ministry. But that's good news to hear about that. We got the offering totals listed down there on the bottom page for the month of August. Prayer requests. So I put Devin's grandfather on here. He has possibly, possibly has cancer. His name is Leon, Leon Mathews. And then Brother Devin's parents are caring for the parents. And then his brother Daniel has a torn bicep and he's having surgery on Thursday. So if you would please pray for them as well as everyone else. Pray for the ladies that are with child in our church. I know Mrs. Rogers could be due very soon. About a month I think is about a month. A little less. Mrs. Rogers like it could be even less than that probably at this point. I know when ladies get near to the end of their term it's like okay any day now would be just fine. So we're gonna be doing a meal train for her. And let's see we're able to talk to anyone just in case. So because we might be out of town and some people might be out of town when this happens. You know we'll make sure that the meal train still happens. It'll definitely go on regardless of whether or not we're, we had a busy September. So whether or not we're here we'll make sure that that happens. And then we're also gonna be adding another event for brother Denzel. On the next page you see all the upcoming events. He's getting married on September 10th but that's gonna be in Montana. And we were gonna have a special event here like a reception for him and his wife after that. So what was the planned date the 10th the 19th. I'm gonna say wait the 10th is the day of the wedding like that doesn't make any sense. So the week after right so the basically that the following Sunday a week from from that Sunday. We'll we'll have like a little reception for for him and Kristen here. And that would be the perfect opportunity if you wanted to like get anything for them whatever. That we'll be celebrating with some food between the services and get a chance to congratulate them. So we'll be doing that on Sunday the 19th right here. So we'll add that on the list I just wanted to bring it up now. It's just not actually on the bulletin. And then also I forgot to mention this this morning. But this is the last service that Kasia is gonna be spending with us for a while maybe. I don't know we'll see if she comes back. If she comes back she's planning on on traveling to your own Arizona right. Spend some time in Arizona faithful word. And we've really enjoyed her presence here and she's been very helpful. And very appreciative for the time that that you put in with us here. And you never know maybe she'll she'll stop bound back. Who knows what the future is gonna hold right for for Kasia. So wish her well this evening. And appreciate you being here with us. We have the August challenge is the visitor challenge. We're trying to invite people to come to church. So remember that when you're out soul winning. You know you talk to people especially get people saved. Encourage them to come to church. And also use the the follow-up cards. I know it might be hard to do. It's hard for me to break kind of break some of the habits. You used to talk about certain things. But be thinking about these things. And have those those cards with you to get their information. Especially if you think they might you know if they say they're interested in coming to church. Then you'll know if they really are interested in coming to church. If you ask well hey do you mind if I get your phone number. And you know give you a call just to remind you about the church. You know on Saturday or whatever just let me you know I'll give you a call. And then if they don't want you to have the number they'll tell you no. And they say yeah sure then go then get their information and give them a call and remind them. Because what happens is especially on Sundays. When we do soul winning on Sundays or on Mondays. There's a lot of time between that Sunday and the following Sunday. And people who are genuinely excited. Genuinely interested in church. You know want to come. A lot of things happen during the week. And especially people who aren't already used to going to church. It's not part of their schedule. It's not something that they do. Are very very easy to not show up to church. Even if they swear up and down that they're going to come. Okay it happens all the time. So one way that we might be able to help people with this. Is if they give us their information and you give them a call. Say hey can I just give you a reminder right. Just make sure you're okay. You don't need a ride whatever right. Give them a call on a Saturday. And just at least remind them. Now even that doesn't work all the time. Okay but don't give up on it. Because sometimes it does work. Sometimes people will come. As a result of you putting forth that little bit of extra effort. I don't think it's a wise use of time to just randomly show up at their door. Because you have no idea if they're going to be there. You could just waste a bunch of time doing that. But if we're also doing the same neighborhood. Like we're going back next week to the same apartment complex. I assume that we're at today if you got someone saved. And they said they were interested in coming to church. You didn't hear from them. You might as well stop by if you're right there anyways. Just knock on the door see if they're hey how's it going. You know okay great and then move on right. That would be that would be fair. Because you're already out going to soul winning anyways. It doesn't take that much effort to go a little bit out of the way. But anyways be thinking about this. Just in general moving forward. But especially this month because if you're able to bring people in. As a visitor for the first time. Then you will earn a prize for that. All the rest of the activities are there. The upcoming events. Bible memory passage. One week to go. I know there's a few people that said we're trying to get this done. So hopefully you'll be able to get those verses memorized. Accomplished this week. You've got until midnight next Sunday. But probably not really midnight. Because you've got to quote it to someone else outside of your family. Unless you know people that are hanging out late. And you're able to go and recite that to them. So work hard on making sure you're not cutting it down to the final minutes. Of the due date there to get that quoted. Upcoming birthdays anniversaries. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We got Mrs. Taylor's birthday on the 18th. Which is also a church day. So hopefully you're going to be here for that. So we could sing happy birthday to Mrs. Taylor. And then we've got another Taylor birthday in August on the 21st. Jubilees on the 23rd. And then as well as Matt and Emily Johnson's wedding anniversary. So lots of things going on in August. That's about it for announcements. Brother Carter will please lead us in our next song. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang to Sister and I this morning. We sang as 304, Nothing Between. Sing it out in the first. Nothing between my soul and a Savior, God of this world in the lucid dream. I have renounced my sinful pleasure. Jesus is mine, there's nothing between, nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that his blessed face may be seen, nothing between those beasts of his favor. He will reign clear, there's nothing between, nothing between life's only pleasure, that it's a lie, no harm this may seem, thus not my heart, from heaven and this heaven. He is mine, there's nothing between, nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that his blessed face may be seen, nothing between the beasts of his favor. He will reign clear, there's nothing between, nothing between my pride or my station, self worthy shall God intervene, though it may cause me much tribulation, I am his own, there's nothing between, nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that his blessed face may be seen, nothing between the beasts of his favor. He will reign clear, there's nothing between, nothing between life's only pleasure, though the whole world against me convenes, watching and prayer and much self-denial, I'll try to last with nothing between, nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that his blessed face may be seen, nothing between the beasts of his favor. He will reign clear, there's nothing between. And while we take up our offering, you can turn to St. Luke, the Gospel of Luke. That's number 13, Gospel of Luke chapter 13. Again, that's the Gospel of Luke chapter 13. That's probably David in the wrong place, but he can probably read the chapter this entire time. That was Luke chapter 13. They were present at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffer such things? I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. He spake also this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down, why comerth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it. And if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work, and them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Then said he unto, What is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the hole was leavened. And he went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not, wince ye are. Then shall you begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not, wince ye are. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out, and they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are last which shall be first and there are first which shall be last. The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sin unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her broad under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Let's pray. Brother Vernon Jr., do you mind praying for us, please? Amen. Amen. All right, the sermon I'm going to preach this evening is a doctrinal sermon, and it's one that hopefully everybody here is already firm on, but it's something that I definitely like to hit on at least once a year because of the prevalence of the doctrine and the false doctrine surrounding this, and the title of my sermon this evening is Except You Repent, okay? So it's definitely going to be on repentance, and I started in Luke chapter 13 because this is one place that I hear brought up a lot from people who are trying to teach a false doctrine when it comes to repentance, and before we even dig into everything here, you know, I'm not afraid to listen to, like, what other people say opposing points of view, and you shouldn't either. We should be able to understand and be challenged on what you believe and why you believe it from Scripture. So, you know, I don't avoid talking about these things or hearing about these things or whatever, but it amazes me, you know, I guess it doesn't really amaze me. It doesn't. What's kind of amazing, though, is that out of all of the arguments I hear, it's like they're all the same, and be careful for people that, like, I hate when people misrepresent an argument because they haven't done their study and their research and understanding of trying to hear what someone else is trying to teach and preach about a subject, and if they do, then they're being even worse by misrepresenting what is being taught. In repentance, this fires me up because this has to do with salvation. I mean, we deal with this all the time. I mean, we have people in here that were not saved because they believed they had to repent of their sins in order to be saved until they finally found out the truth that that actually works salvation of turning from your sins to be saved and then they got saved because they realized, oh, it's not about me. It's not about me stopping living a sinful life to be saved. It's only putting my trust in Jesus Christ. Yes, it's an extremely important doctrine, and there are people out there that are butchering these verses on repentance, and unfortunately, you have preachers that just repeat things that they've heard, repeat things they've been taught, without studying out for themselves, and that's giving people the benefit of the doubt that they're a good person or they're actually saved. If they're actually saved and they're just preaching stupid things just because they've heard it before and they're just grossly misunderstanding this doctrine, you know, God help them. I hope that they would have the character and the dedication to God's word to be able to look and study this out instead of just repeating the same old talking points, and when I hear people preach on this, the preaching has very little Bible in it. It's not an in-depth study. They're going to bring up, so, whoa, so I guess you just want to throw this verse away. It's like, no, we don't throw those verses away. Why don't you take the time and listen to what we teach on the subject because there's an answer for every single verse that uses the word repent, and at the end of the day, the bottom line, what it boils down to as with all doctrines in Scripture and all of your reading and all of your study, look at the context. Context is key. People get away with this because the word repent is not common in our language. So, one, it's just grossly misunderstood in general, and it's easier for people to be confused about it because it's a word that you don't use day to day in general. So, when someone tells you, oh, this is what repentance is, okay. But when you read the Scripture and if you apply what that's saying in every passage, like, here's the thing. Some people will give you a definition of repentance that it means that you have to turn from your sins. That's what it means to repent. You have to turn from your sins. But right off the bat, if you use that definition consistently every single time the Bible uses the word repent, you've got big problems right away. Right away, you have problems. And we're going to look at these passages and not just refer to them and not just say, oh, well, Jesus of John taught repentance, so this person doesn't teach repentance, and, you know, I don't know what they're thinking. Well, look, why don't you listen to what we're thinking? Why don't you get in your Bible and hear from the Word of God and you'll be able to understand, hopefully be able to understand unless you're blind. If you're spiritually blind, you won't get this. But hopefully you do. Luke 13 is where we're starting. And, you know, sorry, let me finish that point. The reason why I say you've got a big problem if you're using the definition of turn from sin is because God repents, and God's not a sinner. So if God repents in Scripture, which we'll get to that, don't worry. We're going to get to that passage. I'm not just going to... We'll go, and I'll point you to at least one of those instances. We're not going to... This is homework for you if you really want to know more about the subject. And if you're unsure about this or unsettled, then I really encourage you, get a concordance, get a software application, look for the word repent, repentance, any form of repent, and read the context every time it's used. It's a good way to learn. It's a good way to study. Just look and see, just look and see what does the Bible say about this, and let the Bible teach you. You could understand, okay, well, I've heard this from this preacher. I've heard this from that preacher. I've heard people say different things. What does the Bible say? You have to do that with everything that you believe. This is just one of those doctrines, and unfortunately, when you have people trying to teach contrary to what I'm going to teach tonight, they're not going to bring you to very many places in the Bible. But Luke 13 is one that they'll bring up very frequently. So I want to start with Luke 13 because if you just read it for what it says, it doesn't teach a works-based salvation of your soul going to heaven at all. We're going to see what this says. Look at verse number 1 in Luke chapter 13. The Bible says, There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. So Jesus is there, and there's people bringing up this story about these Galileans that had these sacrifices, and apparently Pilate had killed them and mingled their blood with their sacrifices, right? Like there's this massacre or whatever of these Galileans that got mingled in with their sacrifices, and some, you know, many people must have died here. And they're talking about this. And then in verse 2, the Bible says, And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things. So he's saying, well, so what? What do you think? Do you think that these people were just super extremely wicked and just way worse sinners than everyone else, which is why they had that happen to them? He's saying, what do you think? Do you think that's the case? Do you think this is happening unto them just because they were so horrible and so wicked and so bad? He says, I tell you nay. He says, no. This didn't happen to them just because they were just so much worse than everyone else, he says, but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. He's saying, no, this didn't happen to them just because they're just exceeding sinful above everybody else. That's not why that happened. He said, but unless you repent, basically, you're going to, that word likewise, it means in the same manner. And we're going to see another example here about the Tower of Siloam. Look at verse 4, the Bible says, are those 18, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them? So apparently, 18 people died. There was this big building crash. The twin towers fell down, whatever. The Tower of Siloam fell down. It fell down and killed 18 people. It's a tragedy. 18 people died. And see, at the time, and people were doing this a lot when you read the scripture in Jesus' day, they would look at people who were blind. You would say, well, who sinned? Him or his parents? You know, like who did wrong for this to happen to them? Every single thing, every tragedy, people just always looking to pin the blame on someone going like, oh, those people died in a tragedy? They must have all just been really wicked. Like just, that was their thought process. And Jesus tried to explain to them, like here, these 18 people died in the Tower of Siloam. He said, do you think they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? He's like, there's nothing extra sinful about those people. I tell you nay, because he says no, they weren't. But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Now, when we're reading this in a context, so is the reason why they died because they were just extremely sinful over other people? No. So then, if they weren't extremely sinful over other people, then what did they need to repent of? Did they have more sins than other people? I mean, there's a question you ask, what are they repenting of? Well, what is the punishment also? Because where in this verse, in this passage, does it say, well, except you repent, you won't go to heaven? Does it say that you're not gonna go to heaven? Does it say anything about eternal life? Does it say anything about a fiery death? Does it say anything about hell? Does it say anything about any of that in this passage? Does it say that? Because I don't see it anywhere. Maybe I'm blind, I know I'm losing my sight as I get a little bit older, and I need some reading glasses, but I haven't been seeing this, no matter how many times I read the Bible, I haven't seen any reference to eternal life in this passage. But people want to use this as if this is talking about eternal life, but you know what does have that word likewise? Because likewise means in the same manner. Now, how did these people die? How did the people die that had their blood mingled with the sacrifices? Physically or spiritually? They physically died. When the tower fell on those people in Siloam, what happened? They physically died. So if he says, well, unless you repent, you're gonna likewise die. What does that mean? In the same way. You're likewise gonna perish. Because perish just means to die. It doesn't always mean, just the word perish, again, by itself, is another word that people automatically assume, well, perish means you go to hell. Not necessarily. It could mean that, but it doesn't have to mean that, and perish just means to die. There is references to people dying when they're dying physically, just like there's references to people dying and it's a spiritual death, or a soul death, however you want to define that. You have to get it based on the context. So when people want to turn it, oh, yeah, see, what do you think about that, huh? Well, I've yet to hear someone go through this verse by verse and just explain it out and say, see, this is why if you don't turn from your sin, your soul is gonna go to hell. Jesus said himself, it's not that they were just exceeding sinners over anyone else. Because most of the people are gonna teach you you have to repent of your sins and be saved. They know that nobody's perfect. They know that. They're not gonna make the claim, and look, I'll try to treat them fairly. I'm not gonna put words in their mouth. They're gonna say, well, no, I mean, of course people still sin, but they have a problem with certain sins. Oh, well, I mean, but you can't just keep on drinking, right? And whatever it is, their pet sins, wherever they get it from, whatever passage they want to go to and say, well, I mean, but you can't just do that. You can't just do this. I mean, you can't just fornicate. Do you think they were exceeding sinful? That they would have to repent of their sins to be saved? Because it doesn't sound like they are. It doesn't sound like, well, these sinners are actually much worse. That would mean, well, you have to repent of your sins then because you're exceeding sinful. That's not what this is teaching. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 19 because I want to cover this as well, but there's actually a lot more. I'm sorry, keep your place in Luke 13, but go to Acts 19. We're gonna come back to Luke 13. There's another aspect of this. This isn't just gonna be hopefully not exactly like you've heard every other sermon about repentance because I am gonna tie in another application, if you will, that is evident. I'm gonna make some connections. Maybe you've seen it before. Maybe you haven't in these passages with repentance and the applications that can be made because there are multiple applications you can make with these things, but here's the bottom line is when it just comes to being saved, we're gonna teach you, I'm gonna show you that that would be a workspace salvation if you have to return from your sins. The Bible spells that out very clearly. Luke 13, we just read there, those first few passages, it's talking about people physically dying. It's not talking about people going to hell. It's not talking about people going to heaven. It's talking about people where Jesus warns, hey, if you don't repent, you're gonna die just like they did, okay? And there's a reason for that because there's a call to repentance for your soul, but there's also a call to repentance for your flesh. There's a salvation of your soul, and there's a salvation in a temporal sense of your flesh, of you being spared punishment on this earth. That's why, you know, when the Bible talks about, you know, Jesus said, forgive and you shall be forgiven. The Catholics like to take that and run with that and say, see, they turn it into this workspace salvation of, well, I mean, if you don't forgive people here, then you just will go to hell or purgatory because you won't be forgiven. That's not the forgiveness that he's talking about, that the Bible's talking about. You have eternal forgiveness that happens that washes away your sins through the blood of Jesus Christ the moment you accept Jesus Christ as your savior. That grants you entrance into heaven. That gives you eternal life. That is what saves your soul. Your soul from that day forward is saved, bound eternally. The new man is born again inside of you. That spirit that could never sin is born within you. And that doesn't change. That's what happens when you put your trust in Jesus Christ. That is what your, that salvation, that forgiveness happens at that moment. But there's another forgiveness that you still need as long as you're still a sinner on this earth. And that's the forgiveness that you can receive from a father, a loving father in heaven, that needs to discipline his children when they act up, when they misbehave, when they're not obeying the rules. There's mercy and forgiveness that you're going to want to seek from your heavenly father when you do wrong. There's a repentance that God wants to see in your heart and in your mind and in your attitude and the way that you behave that he wants to see from you. And if he sees that, he'll show mercy on you and he'll show, extend forgiveness unto you instead of, you know, coming at you with the rod and whooping you because you need to be corrected and shown the right way and getting back on the right path. And when you understand that, everything makes perfect sense. The Scripture does not have contradictions because if salvation truly is by grace through faith, that is the only forgiveness you need for your soul to be saved. And that is what the Bible teaches. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God and not of works as any man should boast. So you have to reconcile the passages. They're talking about, well, forgiven you'll be forgiven. How does that work? Well, it works in this lifetime. It works physically. Acts chapter 19 is going to settle because, you know, again, the people, oh, you don't preach repentance. Jesus taught repentance. John taught repentance. They preached repentance and they did. They're right about that. They did. You know what? I'm preaching repentance tonight. I'm teaching out of Luke 13. The Bible said, Jesus said, except you repent, you shall likewise perish. I'm teaching on repentance. That word just doesn't mean what I think they think it means. I don't think that word means what you think it means. That word means something else. I'm showing, I'm actually teaching, the Bible says, hey, ye shall all likewise perish. Likewise means in the same way. It doesn't mean something different. It doesn't mean you're going to perish in a different way by going to hell. They perished in this life. You're going to go to hell. I'm not teaching that because that's not what the Bible says. But see, they're not going to break it down like that because they can't because they're teaching something false. You ought to be able to break it down to every single word and know what's true because it's literally what the Bible says. But Acts 19 settles the, yeah, because you're going to see where Jesus and John the Baptist will say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Very nonspecific in the language being used. The quotes of Jesus and John saying repent are very short and don't have a lot of context surrounding them. But I tell you what, in their ministries, John the Baptist wasn't just standing there going, repent. If you go out in the wilderness, let's hear John preach. What's he going to say, man? He's crazy. He's got a leather belt and he's eating locusts and wild honey. Let's see what he has to say. He goes, repent. Repent. Repent. Repent. He's saying a lot more than that. It's not all recorded in Scripture. Jesus said a lot more than that. It's not all recorded right here to read like an entire sermon from what they're saying. But you know what we have? We have a summary. We have the Apostle Paul giving a testimony of what John was saying when he was baptizing people with the baptism of repentance. And we find it in Acts chapter 19. Isn't it amazing, if we look to the Bible for the answers, we can actually find the answers that we need to know in Scripture. So what did John mean when he was teaching everyone to repent? What was he talking about? Well, let's look at verse number one. The Bible says, And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus, and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. So he finds these people. They have no idea who the Holy Ghost is. I don't know what you're talking about. Holy Ghost? What are you talking about? And Paul's just going, Wait a minute. How do you not know anything about the Holy Ghost? Wait, where were you baptized again? What were you baptized for? Oh yeah, John's baptism. He's going to explain. Look, this is what John's baptism was. This is going to explain to him now. Because these people didn't get saved. And look, it happens. People get baptized that don't get saved. And it's unfortunate, but you know what happens in probably every ministry? There's going to be people who can repeat something or say something, but they didn't really get it in their heart. And you could say the right answers or you could say things. Whenever I baptize people, I always ask everyone I baptize, Hey, you know, they're just standard questions. You know for sure you're saved. Tell me how you're saved. What do you believe? And then I baptize them. But I'm sure if there's bigger days, there's bigger events going on too. You've got other people helping you and giving the gospel to people. And they're like, All right, we got another one to baptize. You're getting a lot of people baptized all at once. You're going to have some people filter through there that might not have heard the best plan of salvation, that might not have understood it fully. And they just don't get saved. Look, it happens. Okay? And here we see a couple of guys that are just like, I don't know what you're talking about, the Holy Ghost, but I mean, yeah, we got baptized. I mean, I got baptized as a baby. It doesn't mean anything. I didn't understand the gospel as an infant. So here he explains this, verse four, Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance. Paul knows all about the repentance, because that's what John preached, repentance, right? Amen. I'm not saying he didn't. John the Baptist preached repentance. Amen. I believe that. John the Baptist did not preach you have to turn from your sins to be saved. John the Baptist preached repentance. Amen. I preach repentance. Amen. I don't preach you have to be, to turn from all of your sins to be saved, because that's a workspace salvation. John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. What was the baptism of repentance? Believe on Jesus Christ. What do we have to do to be saved? Oh wait, that verse, that sounds familiar. It sounds like a verse I've read in the Bible before. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And what did they say? Oh yeah, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in the house. And what was John saying about the baptism of repentance? Oh yeah, that they should believe on him, which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. Isn't it amazing how the Bible just fits together so well? Isn't it amazing how it's not confusing at all what John was teaching and preaching when he's telling men to repent and he's baptizing them after they've repented? Because he's teaching them to believe on Jesus. There's nothing confusing about that. There's no contradiction. The confusing part comes in is when liars and deceivers come in and want to tell you that a word means something that it doesn't mean. That's the confusing part. The word itself, repent, means think again in its most literal, basic form. When you put it in context, it can, you know, be applied to have a meaning very similar to that. But the context is going to determine exactly what it means. It could be a turning. It can be, you know, the rethinking, the literal, the most literal sense. It can be, you know, a turning from various things. But you have to get it in the context to understand exactly how it's being applied. What is it referring to? And then it says in verse 5, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. They got baptized again. Why? Because they got saved. Because they weren't saved before when they got baptized. And now they got saved, so then they got baptized. You know, I'm going to have you turn to all these passages. Turn to Exodus 13. Keep your place in Luke 13 so we are coming back to that. We're going to end up coming back to Luke 13 if you didn't lose that place. But I don't want to cover just one passage in Scripture to prove this to you, because most people who teach the opposite are only going to use one passage of Scripture. And they don't even do that very well. They just build a straw man argument and knock it down when it's not really what we're teaching. But see, I have faith in the listener that y'all just aren't a bunch of morons or people who don't care that much and are just willing to be spoon fed everything that you believe. The charlatans, the phonies out there, they like to take advantage of people who don't want to look things up, who just want to come in and be told what the Bible says. But that's not the culture that we have here. And as long as I'm pastor here, we're never going to have that culture. Exodus 13, look at verse number 17, we're going to see another usage of the word repent. And again, as you look at some of these verses, if it has to do with sin, now, Luke 13, you can argue that the repentance was tied in with sin because it actually brought up the fact that these people are sinners. Now, he wasn't saying they were exceeding sinful above all the other sinners, but at least in the context, it's making reference to sin. So I have no problem, and I can understand where you're going to say, oh, yeah, the repentance there is talking about sin. Okay, sure, it could be, but you know what it's not talking about? It's not talking about dying and going to hell or being saved from hell because he said likewise perish, which was a physical death. So in that context, you want to talk about, you apply it to sin? Sure, it's in the context there, but it's not talking about to be saved from going to hell. It's not. It simply isn't. It's not true. Let's look at Exodus 13 verse 17. The Bible reads, and it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt. Now, when God was delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt, and he was going to bring them into the promised land, when they got to the promised land, they still had to fight battles, correct, right? Isn't that what we see with Joshua leading the children of Israel into the Canaan land, and they start fighting and having these wars and God's fighting for them and having these battles, right? So God decides not to just bring them to a direct route straight there, because he doesn't think that they're actually ready to handle that, and he doesn't want them returning back to Egypt. Now, would that be the right thing for the children of Israel, after they've been freed from Egypt, to turn back to Egypt, or do you think that would be a sin? I think it would be sinful for them to turn back and go into bondage, to go back to Egypt, which is representative of the world, and go back to the house of bondage. We see that taught against, over and over again in Scripture, about the people, if they had a mind to, they'd go back into Egypt, and they even complained in the wilderness, oh, we remember all the good things that we had back in Egypt, and that was a sin unto them. But in the context here, them turning and going back to Egypt would have been a sin, and it says here, lest the people repent and they return to Egypt. So their repentance would have caused them to sin. If they repented, it would have been sin in this context, because they would have repented from doing the right thing and done the wrong thing. That's the context here. So does this, if you applied the definition, well, lest the people turn from their sin when they saw war and return to Egypt, makes no sense. It doesn't add up. Repent doesn't equal turn from sin. Now here, you can see it was a turning, right? Because unless they return to Egypt, so if they're going this way, then they repent, they say, nope, we're going to go back this way. Sure. In the context, that's exactly what that's talking about. But what people try to teach on repentance is saying, well, I'm just headed towards sin, I'm loving sin, now I'm going to go this way and turn my back on sin to be saved. But that doesn't actually happen because everybody still sins. And here's the thing, when you're walking a certain path, you're not looking to your sin to save you. I've yet to run across a person that's telling me, so if you die today, you know for sure you're going to heaven? And they say, yep, absolutely. How do you know you're going to heaven? Because of my sin. I mean, I'm a sinner, man. I love it. I try sin every day. I sin as much as possible. And sin is my savior. If someone had that attitude, then I would say, you need to turn from sin to Jesus to be your savior. In that context, it would make sense. Because you were trusting in sin to be your savior, and now you're going to trust in Jesus to be your savior. That's on an equal playing field. But nobody says that. Because nobody's trusting in their sin. So the repentance isn't turned from sin to the savior. What most people have, instead of their trust being in sin, which I'm representing over here on this side of the auditorium, and the savior being over here, their trust is right here. They already know they're a sinner. They're trusting right here. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no, no. You have to trust here. Change your mind. Oh, I'm not good enough. Oh, I can't save myself. So I'm going to trust on Jesus. You turn from self to the savior. You turn from Buddha to the savior. You turn from Allah, Muhammad, to the savior. That's the repentance needed. It's that simple. I'm going to turn, if you would, to Jonah. Now I'm going to start getting into a little bit more closer to what I want to make an application from Luke 13. Jonah's a preacher. He's called of God to go and preach unto the city, Nineveh, and to preach what God would have him to preach. And his message is a warning message to the people in Nineveh. Jonah doesn't want to do it. You know, hopefully, you know the story. It's where the whale swallows him up and spits him back out on land and everything. And he deals with that. And then God gets him basically to change his mind because he didn't want to go preach. He didn't want to do what God was telling him to do. So God dealt with him in a way that he convinced him to go and do what God wanted him to do. Jonah 1, verse number 2, the Bible reads, this is God talking to Jonah. He says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Okay? We're talking about the sin of Nineveh. Talking about their wickedness. This is the context, right? And you could read, you know, verses 1 and 2, you're going to read about him kind of defying God, and then he comes back in chapter number 3. And we're going to turn to chapter 3, and we're going to see Jonah's got his head back on, right, okay, God, I'm going to do it. So he's going in to preach against that city. Verse number 4, the Bible reads, and Jonah began to enter into the city, a day's journey, and he cried and said, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. What does that mean? God's going to judge Nineveh. Why? Because their wickedness was great. That's consistent with everything else we read in scripture, isn't it? God bringing judgment and destroying nations. I mean, we're going through the book of Isaiah. We read all the burdens and the woes onto all the various nations and places that are wicked, and God is going to judge them. Happens all the time. It's very consistent. That's who God is. God brings judgment against wicked nations. But what happens when the people hear this message from Jonah about judgment coming? Look at verse number 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes, and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. So they hear the message and they go, Oh man, we're in trouble. We better get right with God. Right? So they believe the message, but then they go, Okay, we need to humble ourselves. That's where they wear the sackcloth, they dress down, and they're gonna humble themselves and bring themselves really low before God, but not just that, they say, You know what? We're gonna turn everyone from their evil way. Hey, you people that are committing violence out there, you better stop doing that. This is the decree then from the king saying, We're all gonna repent because I don't want because they were threatened with the physical destruction of Nineveh. Verse 9 says, Who can tell if God will turn and repent? So here we can see again that word repent, a turning, right? Changing his mind. Who can tell if God's gonna turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? So they're saying, Look, we need to do this because maybe God will change his mind. We're set on destruction because of our wickedness, but you know what? If we stop all this, if we humble ourselves, God, we're sorry. We mean it. We won't do this anymore. If we do that, then maybe God won't destroy our great city. Maybe God will give us another chance. Verse 10 says, And God saw their work. Now look, What did they do? They repented of their wickedness. They stopped doing the violence. They were doing violence. Now, isn't that why God brought the flood on the world? Because the violence of man was exceeding sinful and he ended up just judging the world and destroying it with the flood. When we see God's judgment coming on nation after nation, aren't they doing violence many times? Violence and going after strange gods. That's what they're doing. They're giving over their wickedness and God brings judgment. Well, God decided to send a witness, Jonah, into the city to give them a warning. Give them fair warning. Hey, I'm going to judge you guys now. They repented. They stopped the violence and they turned away from that stuff. And what did God see when they did that? Their works. They saw their works. Let's call it what it is. Now, if you're involved in violence, should you stop doing violence? Of course. If you have a wicked way, you're living in a wicked way, should you turn from that and stop doing that? Absolutely. Am I telling anyone not to do that? No. But let's call it what it is. That's work. It's work to stop doing those things. Because when you stop doing wickedness, you're actually obeying the law. Because why would it be wicked unless it was against the law? God's law. So by stopping being wicked and turning from the wicked way, you're turning from your wickedness to God's law. Right? I mean, you weren't following God's law. Now you're going to repent and follow God's law. So if you have to turn from that wickedness to be saved, then what you're saying is, I need to turn to God's law to be saved. Because obeying God's law is works. It's works. It's works. If you have to turn from your sins to be saved, you believe in a works-based salvation as defined by the holy word of God. Call it what it is. If you believe that way, then just admit it. Yes, I believe in a works-based salvation. Admit it. Call it what it is. Don't lie to people and say, oh, but it's not really works. That's not a works-based salvation. You better believe it is. You're turning from your wickedness to the law. You need to turn from the law to the Savior. You need to get saved without thinking that your obedience to the law is going to save you if you're talking about your eternal salvation. Here's the thing. This country, the United States of America, is going to get judged by God because of the wickedness. I believe that wholeheartedly. But you know what? We haven't been judged yet. If there's still space for repentance, even if the people of this land didn't just all get saved, if they decided to say, you know what, no, this is wicked, we're going to stop doing this because we have a fear of God, God may decide to spare a physical judgment on this place. But they'd have to stop the murder of babies. They'd have to stop the exalting of the perverts and the pedophiles. They'd have to stop a lot of wickedness and get more in line with God's law. But that's the only way it's going to happen. But you know what? All that's going to do? That's going to affect a physical nation. That doesn't impact the individual soul. Nations are saved by obedience to God's law. Nations are blessed by obedience to God's law. A nation doesn't have a soul. An individual has a soul. So if God's going to judge a nation which doesn't have its own unique soul, it's going to be based on their works. But a soul, a person's soul is saved by faith without works. For by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, as any man should boast. With the mountain of other scriptures that tell you that salvation is by grace through faith. Turn, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 18. But not only in Jonah 3.10, you know, go ahead and turn to Jeremiah 18. It says they saw their works that they turned from their evil way. And then what did God do? God repented. Then God repented. So God turned from his sin? No. God repented of the evil, which is the harm that he was going to do to them because he was going to destroy them, that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not. God said, okay, you humbled yourself, I won't destroy you. And that's how God deals with nations. And physically speaking on this earth, God could deal with you that way too. God might be ready for you to perish physically, dying on this earth. But if you humble yourself and repent of whatever wickedness you might be doing, God might spare you and give you a little bit of extra time. We know that Moses was about to meet an end before he had his son circumcised. That's another story. You could look that one up for fun if you don't know that story. Jeremiah 18. I'm bringing this up. There's kind of a long, roundabout way we bring up the nation and the judgment because one of the things you're going to see in Luke 13, I kind of cut that short. I'm not done with Luke 13 yet. I didn't do justice to all of that passage. I wanted to point out the obvious of the likewise perishing and kind of get into that. But there's more to that chapter. There's more to the context as to the whole why is he even bringing this up anyways? Why is he bringing up the repentance? Well, the rest of the context will tell you that. But I wanted to lay this groundwork first and understand that many times the repentance that we're seeing in Scripture has to do with a nation repenting. It's definitely the case in Jonah. And in these instances, it's a works repentance. John the Baptist taught a faith repentance, trusting in Christ, believing on him. Because you're turning from different things. The works repentance has to do with your works, stopping wickedness. That doesn't save your soul. The faith repentance is stop trusting in yourself, stop trusting in some false idol and trust in Jesus. That's all belief. That's all faith. That's your soul being saved. Jeremiah 18, look at verse number one, the Bible reads, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, excuse me, saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel. Now, who is he talking to? House of Israel. He's talking to one person or an entire nation or group of people. It's collective. O house of Israel, all the tribes, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. And he repeats O house of Israel multiple times so it's clear who he's talking to. He's not talking to Jeremiah. Hey, can't I do with you? He's not saying that. In this context, what he's talking about with the potter, he's saying, you got a pottery wheel? Oh, man, I kind of screwed this up a little bit. Well, you know what? I'll just put it back together and I'll just shape it and reform it to be something else. That's what the potter is doing, right? The potter has control to make what he wants with that work. He can make a big, long vase. He can make a big, fat bowl. He can do whatever he wants to do, right? The potter has that control. If he doesn't like what he's doing, kind of gets it screwed up, like, oh, man, that got screwed up. That clay didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Well, we'll just bundle it together. We'll get some new clay in here and we'll go, and I'll make it the way I want to do it. That's what he's explaining here to the house of Israel. Don't lose that. We're going to keep reading here. Verse 7. At what instant I shall speak concerning what? A nation. And concerning what? A kingdom. To pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that, what? Nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil. I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. He's spelling it out for you. If a nation, oh, house of Israel, turns from their evil, from their wicked, from their sin, then I'll turn from the evil that I said I was going to do unto you. I won't hurt you. I won't bring damage and judge your nation because that's how God deals with nations. But don't apply the way God deals with a nation to an individual. Get the teaching on how God deals with individuals to learn about individuals and the way that God deals with nations about nations because they're not the same thing. Verse 9, And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. This is preaching coming to the house of Israel, the nation of Israel. This goes back to the law. This goes back to Deuteronomy. This goes back to, hey, stand up on these two mountains and here's the blessings and here's the cursings, right? If you obey my voice and listen to my words and do that, you're going to get these blessings. And if you don't listen to my words and you don't, real basic, right? Everyone should know this about the Old Testament that God said, obey me and you're blessed. Disobey me and I'm going to bring a curse. Basic stuff. And what happened to the nation of Israel? They would go back and forth between being blessed and cursed, right? And when they had a deliverer, they would rise up and a judge and someone who was godly and they'd lead the nation and they'd get on fire and they'd serve God and they'd say, man, we're going to hold the greatest Passover that we've ever had and they'd get rights and they'd do good for a while and they're being blessed and they're getting freed from bondage and they're recovering some of their land and everything else and then what happens? They'd start turning the other way and rearing up altars and a bale and doing everything like that and then God judges them, right? And it's this back and forth kind of a ping pong. But then ultimately, this whole ping pong match ends with Jesus, with the nation of Israel. There's one final point as the parables talk about with the good man that's gone to another land, the king, right? And he's sending all his servants and he's sending these people and they're getting beaten up and killed and he says, you know what? I'm going to send my son. They're going to respect my son. They will reverence my son. That's what I'm going to do. And what do they do under the sun? They kill him. So what does he do? He's going to miserably destroy those wicked servants and let out his vineyard to other people. How does that not make sense? When you have good doctrine, everything in Scripture is going to fit together, just boom, line upon line, no contradiction. Do you have any verses popping your mind going like, wait a minute, that doesn't sound right? Because I don't. I'm going, yeah, this matches up. This matches up. Luke 13, let's go back to Luke 13. With all of that in mind, those first few verses talking about these people being killed and perishing, and he's saying, except ye, ye is plural, except ye repent, not thee, not thou. He doesn't say except thou repent, he says except ye repent, talking to a multitude. He follows that up in verse 6, immediate context of what we had just started the whole sermon with. He spake also this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it, and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. Well, I'm sure this has nothing to do with the immediate context about the people repenting and perishing. No, actually I think this has a lot to do with that. Turn, if you would, to Matthew 21. Because what's he saying here? He brings up a parable. A parable is meant to teach a greater truth than what's on the surface. On the surface, he's just talking about a guy, hey, I've got this fig tree, but it's not really doing anything for me. What's the point of having a fig tree in your yard? It's fruit. I want to eat the figs. I want to do something with the figs. I want to do something with it. What's the point of having an apple tree? I want to eat the apples. Because here's the thing. We had an apple tree that we didn't eat the apples of for a long time at my house. You don't want to have an apple tree and not eat the apples. You know what they do? They drop to the ground and they attract wasps and then you step on them and they get all mushy and it's nasty and there's no reason you're going to want to have that if you're not going to do anything and you don't want the fruit from it. If you just wanted a good-looking tree, then you get one that doesn't produce fruit. But when you want a fruit-producing tree, you want it because it produces fruit. Call me crazy. I know. This sermon is insane. I don't know how anyone could follow it. The logic is just way off. You got this guy saying, you know what? I bought this stupid fig tree and every year, year after year, I come to this tree. We got a fig tree here. Look, there is no fruit on this tree. We've had this tree for a couple years now. Where's the fruit? We need to dung it. No, just kidding. We're not going to dung that tree. But you come to the tree, you're going, where's the fruit? It's doing me no good. I'm spending time. I'm watering it. I'm doing this stuff. Let's get rid of it. What's the point? You're not producing fruit. What's the point? And then he says, hold on a minute. The sermon goes, wait a minute. Just wait. Let me give one more chance. One more shot. I'm going to get the miracle grow. I'm going to do everything I can to make this thing work. Right? I'm going to really invest a lot into that tree. And if that doesn't do it, then okay, fine. Let's just chuck it. And we'll plant a new tree in there that's going to actually produce fruit. That's the parable. I wonder what he's talking about. Well, let's see another parable, or not even a parable, let's see a story of a fig tree in Matthew 21. Verse 18. The Bible says, now in the morning, as he returned into the city, he hungered. This is Jesus. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever. And presently, the fig tree withered away and when the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, how soon has a fig tree withered away? So Jesus was hungry. He said, I want fruit from that fig tree right there, and it wasn't there. And he says, you know what, now you're cursed. You didn't bring forth fruit, now you're never going to bring forth fruit. Let's jump down to verse number 28. Because in the same context of this chapter here, talking about another fig tree story, not bearing fruit, let's see what we see in verse 28. The Bible says, but what think ye? A certain man had two sons and he came to the first and said, son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not, but afterward he did what? He repented and went. And he came to the second and said likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father. They say unto him, the first. Jesus saith unto them, verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. There's so much that I'm going to want to say about this one small passage right here. First of all, we see a guy that said, I'm not going to do that, but then he actually did it, and that's repentance. Because first he said, I'm not going to do that. He wasn't planning on doing it, but then he changed his mind later and said, you know what, no, I'm going to go and do it. Another great example of how repentance works, what it means. But then you had another person that said, oh, yeah, I'm going to go do it, and then he didn't do it. They both repented. The one guy was planning on doing it, or maybe he just said he was going to do it. I don't know. I guess we don't know that for a fact, but let's just assume, or it's very possible he could have actually intended on doing it, but then he's like, there's too many other things going on. That still would be a repentance. Whether or not that was in his heart doesn't matter, because if it was, that would still be a repentance. You see what I'm saying? The definition still would work. They could have both repented that way. But just saying, I'm not going to do it, well, yeah, I'm going to do it, that's repentance. But the statement that he makes then of saying, yeah, the one guy that said he wasn't going to do it, but then he actually did it, they were the righteous one. And now he's applying that to the Pharisees, to the people he's talking to here, because he says that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. Now, if he's calling them publicans and harlots, it doesn't sound like they turn from their sin. But it does sound like they're going to heaven. It does sound like they're saved. Why? Because they believed, they repented at the preaching of John. They believed on Jesus, which is what he was teaching when he taught them to repent. They didn't all stop their wickedness. Now, they should have. Of course they should have. We all should. But he's calling these people publicans and harlots and saying that they're saved. Verse 32, For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not. But the publicans and the harlots believed him. Does it say the publicans and harlots stopped being publicans and harlots? No, it says they believed him. And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him. Now, weren't the Pharisees, weren't these people supposed to be like these really holy, righteous people? I mean, were they publicans and harlots? No, they weren't. Now, I'm not saying that, oh man, these guys were just super righteous. Of course they had their own sin. But they weren't drunkards and publicans and harlots. I mean, at least, you know, we never see that in Scripture. We know they're hypocrites, because they tell other people to do things that they wouldn't do. But we also don't see that they're just living some totally depraved life either. Right? They're putting off this appearance of being holy people, respectable people, whatever, right? Yet, they're the ones that aren't saved, and they're the ones that need to repent. They didn't repent, because they didn't believe. All throughout Scripture. Jump down to verse number 40. Get the context later. I'm running out of time. When the Lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbands? This is the story that I was talking about, right? I gave the synopsis of, you know, the husband went out to a far country, and he's sending these people, and he sends his son. That's why I brought that story up, because this is in the context. We're just not reading it for the sake of time. We're trying to get in the end of it. Verse 40. When the Lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the Scripture the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof, and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard this parable, his parable, they perceived that he spake of them, because he did speak of them, because he's talking to the Pharisees, he's talking to the chief priests, he's talking to the scribes, and he's saying, you know what? I'm going to take the kingdom of God from you. I'm going to take this away, you've had this position for too long, I've been coming and seeking fruit, I've been coming and seeking fruit, and you're not producing any fruit, you're like this fig tree that I planted, and I've dunged it, and I've watered it, and I've sent all these servants to try to help you out and to get you fruitful, and you're not fruitful at all, and now you know what? I'm done with you. And I'm replacing you with someone who is going to bring forth fruit. The fig tree is symbolic of the nation of Israel. And they're not bringing forth the fruit thereof, they're not bringing forth the fruit thereof, he's given them space to repent, he's given them a chance, God even sent his only begotten son to try to get him right, and he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel, and he's sent to the house of Israel, he didn't even go and do a ministry out to all the Gentiles, he was trying to get them until he finally said, you know what? I'm done with you. And this is what's going to make the vast majority of the repent of your sins salvation crowd, they're going to make their head explode. Because a lot of those people that teach that have this Zionist mentality, how dare you believe in that replacement theology stuff? Well, because Jesus said it. Because Matthew 21, Jesus said that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, which means that they had it, which means they were counted children of the kingdom, but he says, you know what? I'm taken away from you and I'm giving it to another nation, which has been prophesied even in the Old Testament. People with a stammering lip and another tongue, they're going to be blessed, they're going to be called, the people who were not in past time, were not the people of God, are now called the people of God. Because you know what? God's not a respecter of persons. That sounds familiar. It sounds like something in the book of Acts that I read. Isn't that what Peter and the disciples had to learn when he went on the Cornelius and the Holy Ghost came upon those that believed, the Gentiles? Oh wow, I guess God's not a respecter of persons then because even on the Gentiles he's given the Holy Ghost. Yeah, yeah, because you're not special because God doesn't care if you were physically born of the seed of Abraham or not. He cares about the nation that's going to bring forth the fruits thereof. Whether that be Israel, whether that be Rome, whether that be Greece, whether that be Spain, whether that be any country, any people, any nation, it doesn't matter. If you're going to be that people, then God's going to use you. And God's going to say, great, you're bringing forth fruits. Now I'm really going to work with you so you can bring forth more fruits and bring it forth abundantly. Of course that's what God wants. But you know what? Woe unto the nation that stops bringing forth the fruit thereof. Because God's going to find another one. You're graft into the tree, guess what? You can be broken off too. Again, these references to trees, references to nations, a reference coinciding with the repentance and the perishing. It all fits together. Makes perfect sense. If I'm wrong about this, I would love to hear somebody explain it in as much detail from scripture and just go point by point and explain why what is being taught is wrong. And I'll take that as a challenge. Go ahead. If you can go through every point that was preached and taught here, show me the error from the Bible, from the scripture. Where is the interpretation wrong and the understanding wrong? Waiting. No, I'm just kidding. But that's the way that we ought to be with everything that we believe though, honestly. And seriously, I'm so convinced of this, I don't see how it can be, I don't see how it can be seen any other way. I really don't. However, however, if someone can teach the Bible and show, I mean, this has to be the authority. It always has to be the authority. And you need to know why you believe what you believe. Like I said, I don't think there's anyone here, hopefully not, I don't think there is, that was screwed up on turning from sins to be saved. But we're always having visitors and we're always having new people join the church and people are at all different levels of understanding. So it's always a good thing, which is why I'm always going to preach this at least every year to make sure that everyone's clear on this. And also, not just clear on it for themselves, but have no more to be able to answer if someone says, oh, well, what do you think? So you're not stumped by Luke 13. Not that there's anything to be stumped on there, but just if you just can learn and remember, just read it clearly for what it says. And don't let someone tell you it means something different than what it says. Look at every word. And it says a word like likewise, what does that mean? When it says perish, what does that mean? When it says repent, what does that mean? Break it down. And then you figure out what it means. It's not that hard. Let's probably have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your word, we thank you so much for the clear teaching When it comes to truth, there is no contradicting it, dear Lord, and we know that all of your word is truth. So help us as we study, as we learn, as we grow, the areas that we don't have proper understanding of. We pray that you would please enlighten us, give us better understanding. Lord, help us to stand firm on your word, on the good doctrines as we've been taught and as we've received to help be able to teach that unto others, Lord, and that we would strengthen the good doctrines and the truth and not be afraid to challenge our beliefs, Lord, but help us to be able to convince and persuade others on all true doctrines. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed. And then we're also having a baptism after service tonight, so stick around for a few minutes and we'll conduct that right away after service. All right, you turn to your hands to the number 306. Let's go down to the number 306. I'm gonna stand at 306. The number 306, Have Thine Own Way, Lord. Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way. Thou art the Father, I am the clay. Woe be and make me, after Thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still. Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way. Search me and try me, Master today. Wider than snow, Lord, watch me just now. As in Thy presence, humbly I bow. Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way. Wounded and weary, healthy I pray. Power on power surely is done. Touch me and heal me, Savior heal me. Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way. Hold almighty, absolute sway. Fill with Thy Spirit, till all shall see. Christ only always, living in me. Thank you.